“I want to live other lives. I’ve never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler

Van Gogh said, “It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.”

John Updike said: “At the point where you get your writerly vocation you diminish your receptivity to experience. Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.”